Falling From the Sky
by Melany Flynn
Summary: Kelly Chambers, 23, is a dancer on Earth who would love more than anything else in the world to leave her home planet and see the Citadel. A shady organization - Cerberus - approaches her with an offer much better than that of the Alliance, and she agrees to their offer, only to be forced to put on a smile in a brutal environment as she beings to discover what's important to her.
1. Chapter 1

Her body was rubber, stretching and moving against the colors. Like a kaleidoscope, they whirled against her pale skin, the sweat making them glint and sparkle as if she had scales. Her long, red hair nearly touched the ground as she clamped her legs around the pole and stretched her head towards the ground, the incredible strength of her thighs and midriff keeping her aloft. The dancer was a siren, a true wonder of the world, as she twisted and turned to the deep, thudding beat. It was her, the music, and the lights. She was showing off for no one but herself, and as she somersaulted and spun she sometimes thought, _maybe this is what space feels like._ The woman sometimes imagined that the exhilaration she felt when she pushed her body to the limit like this was similar to what it would feel like the first time she set foot on the Citadel. It would be only her, and the entire galaxy would be at her fingertips.

As the night came to a close and the final patrons left, Kelly exited the back door alone. She wasn't the best dancer in the club, nor the most prosperous, but she really did love her job. Sometimes, walking out in the middle of the night like this, made her want to run through the streets singing and dancing like the woman in that old musical RENT had done after her shift. Unfortunately, Kelly couldn't sing to save her life. Pulling her hair up into a bun, she took out her omnitool and opened her messages. Nothing new, but it wouldn't be long before her mother called. The sweet aging woman did so every single night shortly after her daughter's shift ended, just to make sure the night had gone smoothly. Although Kelly appreciated the sentiment, it wasn't hard for a nightly call to get annoying, especially when her mother could become a chatterbox.

The woman reread a message from an alliance recruiting officer, with a small, hopeful smile on her face.

_Dear Miss Chambers, _

_I am pleased to let you know that, with a Bachelor's degree in psychology, you will be able to enter the Alliance Military and work in a handful of our colonies. It is possible you will work as an apprentice to any of our certified psychologists or psychiatrists. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate your request of being stationed on the Citadel, as we have all necessary positions filled there. The Alliance is willing to help you find a spot among our ranks within the next few weeks. You will then be subject to basic training, allowing that you pass all basic physical health and drug tests. Please let me know if you would like to go through with this process, and we will get your paperwork submitted and on the way._

_Sincerely, Staff Sergeant L. Rodriguez_

Kelly was only a little disappointed, considering that it was her life's goal to visit and perhaps live on the Citadel. However, she was eager to join the Alliance for the fact that they would allow her to leave Earth. She had been hoping to receive her parents' blessing on the matter, so she could leave home with no qualms. As could be expected, they were not quite as enthusiastic about the military.

Miss Chambers did not wish to shoot guns or become a commanding officer, though. Her primary goal was to experience space travel – to see the stars racing by as she gazed out of the window of a thrumming ship, to shake hands with races she hadn't ever dreamed of. She longed to yell triumphantly as she skipped across the foreign grass of some newly rediscovered world. It was hard to believe that less than a hundred years ago, humans had truly believed they were the only life in the galaxy, in the universe. Kelly had watched thousands of vids about alien life and colonies, and kept up to date with the Citadel news. The woman remembered seeing photos – _photographs!_ – of the fantastical creatures in her textbook for Alien Sociology and Psychology, a class she had taken as an elective in her senior year of college.

The dancer had not even made it halfway down the block when the inevitable call from her mother came in, which she answered in the cheeriest tone she could muster.

"Hello?"

"Kelly! How's your night going, honey?"

"It's been great, Mom," the woman replied, inspecting a nail under the dim light of the streetlamps. The more positive she was, the faster this was over.

"That's good to hear! Any secret admirers?" the woman asked in a teasing tone of voice. You could practically hear her wink.

"Heh. No… but I did get a message from the Alliance recruiter earlier today!"

There was a pregnant pause before the reply came through audible clenched teeth. "Oh? And what did he have to say?"

"It turns out that I can get a job as a psychologist, and they'll even put me on a colony so I can learn more!" the redhead explained elatedly. "He said that if I let him know now about my decision, I can be in basic training in a few weeks. I can't wait to go through with this!" Her mother waited for another long moment before responding.

"Kelly, dear, you know how your father and I feel about this. I just don't think this is a good opportunity for you. You can find a job elsewhere!"

"I'm not making enough money by just dancing," Kelly argued, her fingers clenching the bridge of her small nose in exasperation. "I've gotten a degree in psychology, I deserve to use it! The Alliance can give me a steady job and pay, and allow me to explore the galaxy while I'm at it. Why don't you understand that?"

"I understand that there are plenty of jobs and resources here on Earth, that you are perfectly capable of taking advantage of," her mother replied, the voice through the earpiece rising in aggravation. "You'll get over this space-age phase soon enough, just focus on what you have! I don't want to hear about my daughter's death after she's put on the front lines of the military."

"They won't put me on any lines; I'll be working as a psychologist!"

"Not until we're on the brink of a war!"

"We're completely at peace with the other species right now!"

"Kelly, the answer is no. Your father and I will not allow you to join the Alliance. I'm putting my foot down."

The psychologist was seething. She had reached her apartment building, an old crummy thing made of concrete. Stopping beside the door, she gently pressed a fist against the wall, restraining herself from the painful act of punching it. "I'm an adult now, Mother," Kelly replied, her voice plainly shaking with rage. "I'll do what I want. You and Dad aren't in charge of me anymore. I just thought it might be nice to get your approval." Ending the call my clicking a button on her omnitool, the woman made a guttural noise of irritation. Taking long, angry strides, she entered the apartment building and made a beeline for the elevator. She gave the smoky-eyed woman at the administrative desk a guilty glance, knowing her rent was running late again.

Reaching her apartment, she fumbled with the door code before it slid open, allowing her to enter. Stumbling over to a light switch, Kelly flipped on the lights and kicked off her heels into the living room with a sigh of relief. Turning to her left and entering the crowded bathroom, she splashed her face off with cool water and used the toilet before letting her hair loose and changing into a more comfortable outfit, complete with bright pink yoga pants and a baggy t-shirt. Although most spacefarers slept in skintight, retro outfits that gave them more free movement and a more sci-fi feeling, people on Earth liked to stick to their nearly traditional attire of jeans, t-shirts, and sweatpants. Kelly wasn't exactly looking forward to the dress code change, but she wasn't going to worry herself over it at this point.

Scarfing down a bowl of generic cereal, the woman placed the dish in the sink and headed straight for her bedroom, squeezing between her bed and her dresser to get to her lamp and turn it off. Kelly made a note to herself to get in touch with the Alliance officer first thing in the morning. The increase in income couldn't hurt for sure, and by the forces above she couldn't wait to be among the stars.

Just as she turned off her lamp, she gazed out the window. An entire galaxy stared back at her, the stars throbbing and churning billions of light years away. She was lost in the wonder of the very universe itself, and a glow of excitement began to fill her body. Kelly was so close – so close to becoming another dot in the sky, to becoming another part of the equation in this big, black world. The woman settled on her bed, and when she closed her eyes the stars danced on her eyelids, taking her away until morning.


	2. Chapter 2

Kelly brushed her teeth vigorously in the mirror, saving her smile from any trace of breakfast. She had sent a message to the Alliance recruiting officer when she first woke up, announcing that she would make her way down to the office later in the afternoon. The woman rinsed her mouth before wandering into the living room and powering up her vid screen to listen to some news. On a shelf below the screen sat a collection of antique digital vid discs from years ago, the worn covers displaying names of very old musicals. The woman's grandmother had passed away when she was very young, and she discovered the vid disks along with a player in a box of her belongings. Indifferent to the discs, her parents allowed her to hook up the player and watch these old musicals. Kelly had grown up loving each and every one of them, and knowing the majority of the words and tunes, regardless of her inability to sing.

This morning was a special on Commander Shepard, the first human Spectre, who had mysteriously gone missing about a year and a half ago. There were tabloid rumors circulating the media that involved the commander being trapped in a prison somewhere on a planet far from Citadel space, and that she needed a rescue team. Although Shepard was one of Kelly's personal heroes, having saved the galaxy once already and being a famous Alliance Hero, she wasn't quite as eager as others her age to believe the rumors. After only a few minutes of listening to the nonsense, she turned the screen back off and exited the apartment.

Luckily, the Washington state town she lived in wasn't very large at all, although it could tend to be a little damp. Nearly every shop was within safe walking distance of another, and regardless of your destination it would not take longer than a half hour to reach it. The dancer was heading more towards the shadier outskirts of town to visit the recruitment office, and so she nervously played with her long hair.

Kelly passed a vintage fashion shop, and paused to look through the window, admiring the lacy dresses and overgrown sun hats. She vaguely wished that she could afford such a beautiful piece of clothing, before turning and realizing there was a woman standing beside her. Startled, the psychologist took a step back, but the woman remained indifferent. She was dark-skinned, wearing one of those skin-tight space outfits and sunglasses. Kelly wondered for a moment if she should leave the woman alone, but just as she was about to leave, the soft but piercing voice cut through the air like a knife.

"Kelly Chambers?" the woman asked, turning her head in a sly manner, raising one eyebrow at the redhead.

"Y-yes," Kelly replied, looking around nervously. She was a bit disconcerted by the fact that this woman knew her name. "Are you an Alliance recruiter?"

A high-pitched laugh rung through the humid air like a bell, and the woman's white teeth sliced through Kelly's vision. "No, I'm not. My name is Leena Roman," she said, offering a hand, which Kelly shook out of politeness. "I'm a recruiting officer for a different organization: Cerberus. Have you heard of us?"

Kelly cocked her head slightly, glancing at the hexagonal logo on the woman's tunic. She had heard the name mentioned at the club by customers. From what she had heard, they paid fairly well and most of their employees did space travel. Unfortunately, she hadn't ever known how to get in touch with them. Was it the same organization? "Uh… I think so."

Leena didn't skip a beat. "Well, we're approaching you with a job offer, Miss Chambers. We're an organization founded to keep an eye on the wellness of humanity. It's to my understanding that you've been looking into the Alliance, and I believe we can give you a better offer." The woman procured a datapad and tapped it a few times before handing it to Kelly. It was a datasheet comparing different aspects of the two organizations – pay rate, job positions, places in space she would be able to go, the quality of the ships. Cerberus beat out the Alliance in almost every aspect. The psychologist's eyes widened, giving Leena her cue to continue talking. "If you accept our offer, we will be able to ship you off Earth as early as this evening, with no basic training or intensive tests. We've been keeping our eye on you, and my boss seems to think you're perfectly capable of doing everything we need from someone of your area of expertise."

Pausing for a moment, Kelly handed the datapad back to the other woman. Her mind was working as she considered the offer. She'd had her eye on the Alliance for so long, but the obvious choice would be Cerberus. The small woman needed the extra money to buy herself a bigger, better living space. There were so many positions and jobs available as a psychologist, and she could choose from any of them. And so many places, all over the galaxy, she could go. "Where would you station me?" the psychologist ventured, rocking back and forth on her feet a little.

"Where would you like to go?" the woman replied, a smirk on her face.

"The Citadel," she blurted out, hardly able to contain herself. If this organization could one-up the military in this aspect, Kelly would be sold. Leena pulled up the screen of her omnitool, typing something as if making a note.

"We can get you there."

A rush of exhilaration filled Kelly's veins, and she had to restrain herself from triumphantly punching a fist in the air. She was grinning ear to ear, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. "I'll take the job," the dancer said, almost squeaking in excitement. Leena nodded as if she had expected nothing less, and continued to type into her omnitool. A few awkward seconds went by before the recruiter finally shut off the holographic screen and let her arm fall to her side.

"We'll pick you up outside your apartment building at exactly 20:00 tonight," Leena said, the slyness having been wiped off her face and replaced with a businesslike formality. Her tongue went over the words smoothly, as if she had repeated them thousands of times. "If you have any pets, please take care of finding a new home for them before that time. Please dress in comfortable clothing. Do not bring anything but your omnitool and personal credit chit, as well as any medications or prescriptions. We will take care of putting your belongings safely in storage." Abruptly, the dark-skinned woman turned on her heel and strode the other direction, leaving an elated Kelly outside the antique clothing shop with her fists balled up in excitement.

The woman began to walk back in the direction of her apartment to clean up a little and make it less crowded to ease the work for those who would be coming by later to store her belongings. Although she had been looking forward primarily to space travel, it was her true dream to walk the streets of the Citadel. Regardless of the damages done by the Reaper attack only a handful of years ago, she still saw footage of the beautiful Presidium and saw that they had pulled through very nicely. Located conveniently near a prominent mass relay, the space station had become a home to nearly all spacefaring species who wished to reside there. Having only seen a handful of aliens, all asari (including one she worked with), Kelly was in awe at the unfamiliarity of it all. It was like she had stepped into an old sci-fi book, and her space travels hadn't even begun yet.

All of a sudden, it dawned on the psychologist that her parents would likely not approve of this. They hadn't just wanted her to avoid the military: they hadn't even wanted her to leave the planet. Pulling out her omnitool, Kelly looked at it nervously before sucking up her fear and pressing the button to call her mother. It only took seconds for the older woman to answer.

"Have you called to apologize to me?" Kelly instantly regretted her decision, and considered hanging up the line right then and there. However, on second thought, it would probably be years before she saw her mother again, and she might as well leave on good terms.

"Yes. I'm sorry I talked to you that way last night. I just felt that your intention was to smother me. I realize now that your true intent was simply to protect me." Her mother audibly grunted an approval. Deciding not to hesitate, Kelly continued. "However, I have decided not to pursue the Alliance as a career."

The older woman made a small gasp. "Oh, really, Kelly?" she said, becoming excited. "That's so great! Were you given a job offer by any of the practices in your area?"

The redhead grimaced. "Not exactly that, but I was approached by an organization named Cerberus."

"Are they Earth-based?" She could see where this was going.

"I believe so, because they explained to me that they like to work for the greater good of humanity, or something along those lines. I don't think they have an office in Washington, though." Kelly hated these conversations – they balanced on a thin wire, and they could either fall into an argument or a decent, supportive conversation. Her mother didn't speak for a while. "They're paying me a lot more than the Alliance was going to, and they have lots of positions I can take."

"Kelly. Are you going to leave Earth?"

And there they were, at a stalemate. Kelly loved her parents more dearly than anything in the world – they were her closest friends, the only people who had been there for her, her entire life. She didn't want to lose their support, but she knew that if she stopped informing them of her decisions they would only get more upset. She didn't want to disappoint her mother by letting her know that they wouldn't see each other again for a very long time, but she couldn't keep her in the dark either. Taking a big, shaky sigh, Kelly answered the question.

"Yes. I'm leaving tonight." The silence was uncomfortable and heart-wrenching. She needed to get off the call. "Look, Mom, I have to get off. I need to take care of some things." There was another long pause, and Kelly was starting to fidget and play with her hair while she walked. Finally, the aged voice broke through the connection.

"Look, I know there's nothing we can do about this, dear." It sounded like she was on the brink of tears. "I just hoped maybe I could keep you here a little longer. What you said last night was true – you are too old for us to be in charge of you anymore. I love you, Kelly."

Before pressing the button to disconnect, Kelly sighed yet again. "I love you too, Mom."

_[[[So far, I have to say thank you for the reviews! I know what I have published so far isn't very substantial, but I've had a bit of an outline working and I've decided to make a chapter per point. I used to roleplay Kelly on Tumblr, and stopped after things started getting stressful, but I always thought she was one of the most underappreciated characters (by both the fans and Bioware itself). I apologize for any grammar or spelling issues, but I'm doing this for fun and I am going to write at my own leisure. I'll might go back and edit once I've finished the whole thing Thanks for reading! –KR]]]_


	3. Chapter 3

The ship wasn't large – it was simply big enough to hold this week's catch, an assortment of young adults from all over this region of Earth. Almost anyone could deduce that this ship was used primarily for shuttling Cerberus's new recruits, holding a minimal amount of sleep pods and having no visible weaponry. It wasn't quiet, either – the hum of the engine was giving Kelly a headache. They sat awkwardly in a briefing room, in a relatively empty deck below the bridge and navigation center. The room had a tastefully large and bright Cerberus logo mounted on the wall they were facing, and most of the new recruits either stared at it or at the ground, nervously awaiting the speech they were about to receive.

After a long stretch of down time, a somewhat older man who seemed almost military entered. He wore a charcoal and yellow-orange armor, and his hair was short and grey. His dark-colored face had Asian accents to it, and he wore an eye patch on his left eye, a scar stretching down to his lip. The man proudly strutted to the back of the room, where he turned and surveyed the fidgety beginners, hands clasped behind his back, his chin high in the air. Kelly herself even began to feel like she should squirm a little under his strong gaze, reaching up a hand to stroke her hair, but after some moments he broke a friendly smile and pulled an empty chair towards himself, sitting in it before the whole room.

"Don't worry, y'all aren't on an Alliance ship," the man joked in a much gentler voice than the psychologist had imagined him having, allowing a few of the young adults to chuckle nervously. "Welcome t' Cerberus, th' next best thing in th' galaxy. Lemme start off by introducin' myself. My name is Lieutenant Mark Bishop, but you c'n call me Lieutenant. I used to be in th' Alliance, until I got injured in some freak accident on an alien planet, lost m' eye." He pointed to the patch emphatically, earning a few nods from those who were closer to him. "They let me off, gave me some retirement money, and sent me on m' way back to good ol' Earth. But I wanted some action! I was still good t' go, and I wanted t' go down fightin', not rockin' on my back porch in Texas. So, like you, I was approached by Cerberus. They let me be a weapons trainer, said I wasn't reliable with only one eye. When I were sick of it, I decided t' be in charge of new recruits. They let me do what I wanted, and I still got paid, and I have not been disappointed.

"See, problem with th' Alliance, is they're tryin' way too hard to get friendly with the aliens. I say we need to forget them, keep goin' with what's good for us. Take what we need, stay at home with our planet. We're riskin' way too much fraternizin' with some bluebloods. That's what Cerberus thinks, too, an' I like that. We do what's right for humanity, and we keep it simple and clean. Get in, get the job done, get out. Everyone's happy." A few of the new recruits muttered approval, nodded to each other. Kelly merely sat still, taking in what she was hearing. Who cares if Cerberus didn't want to make friends with aliens? They could still interact, still gain from each other. There was so much to learn, so much to see… Cerberus seemed to be behind the scenes, working for the needs of humanity instead of doing what was legally and socially correct. That didn't seem so bad.

As the Lieutenant began to go over the rules of the organization, the boy sitting next to her took it as a cue to whisper to her eagerly. "Hey, I'm Liam. You heard the news on Shepard?" he asked, and she gave him a sideways glance. He had to have been fresh out of high school, which meant that he felt the right to talk while others were talking. The psychologist rolled her eyes at him disinterestedly, deciding that she didn't want to waste her ticket off of Earth for the gossipy sake of some kid.

But Liam persisted. "I heard that she's trapped on a prison somewhere. She needs rescue. And this is what's going to get me to her," he continued.

Kelly frowned. Obviously, this boy had been listening to the same newscast she had been the morning before, but even they had said the stories were ripped directly from tabloid media. If he thought he could get away from the organization and rescue a woman who'd been missing for over a year, he was sadly mistaken. "Shut up and listen," she murmured back, trying to tune in to the man explaining the regulations on contacting family.

"I've got a friend, see," the young boy said, "who's a computer hacker on the Citadel. He said he's been getting some signals and he knows where he can find her. Says she's captured by some Batarians near a Cerberus base. If I can get to her and I can rescue her, I wouldn't just be a gun for hire, I'd be a _hero_." Kelly felt that with every word, Liam was getting closer, and it was starting to disgust her. She inched away from him ever so slightly, trying very hard to block his voice out. Turning and glaring at him,

The Lieutenant was going over consequences for deserting, and she really strongly considered turning this hopeful hero in. After some debating in her mind, she decided it would be for the best. The organization would keep him from stepping out of line and keep him well away from that base, where he could try and break away and do something stupid. Not to mention, she would get some small approval from this Lieutenant, who was likely a prominent figure in where she would wind up in this new career.

"Sir, what exactly counts as deserting?" A piercing voice cut through the air, and Kelly's gaze darted to a skinny girl about her age, with thick, curly black hair, glasses too large for her face, and a long, thin nose. Squinting her eyes at the odd figure, Kelly was immediately irritated.

Lieutenant seemed to be just as pleased by the interjection, leaning closer to the girl to get a better look. "And what would you happen t' be here for, young miss?" the older man asked, raising a bushy grey eyebrow.

"I'm Naomi Eavral, and I'm here for psychology!" the young woman squeaked, and Kelly wrinkled her nose. She hoped she wouldn't have to work with this mouse of a girl. The Lieutenant looked at her for a moment, before letting out a low chuckle.

"You won't have t' worry about getting' in trouble with desertin', sweetheart," the man laughed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. Kelly bristled a little. How could anyone with the same expertise as her not know something as basic as what deserting entailed? Considering that most of these recruits were probably going to wind up in combat anyway, she decided the rest of the room felt the same as her about this smidge of a woman.

At that moment, the pilot came over the speakers, proclaiming to the passengers that they were about to meet the Mass Relay and that they should brace themselves. The redhead realized that she wasn't the only one with their first time in space as a few of the recruits exchanged scared looks, clenching the edges of their chair in anticipation. However, the burst of energy was relatively short and not as turbulent as Kelly had expected it to be, and she untangled her tightly clasped hands from each other as the Lieutenant continued with his speech.

After another seemingly infinite half hour, the Lieutenant shakily stood up from his seat, and the recruits watched as he gained his balance, favoring one leg highly over the other. But once again he stood straight and strong, with a powerful but friendly smile on his face. "If y' have any concerns, you c'n come t' me with 'em," he advised, limping forward a few steps. "If y'all will follow me, we'll get y' out onto th' Citadel and t' our local office, where we'll get y'all registered n' fitted for uniforms n' ready t' set out t' your assigned places."

Kelly wiped her slightly sweaty palms on her pants, standing up with the rest of the group and following the Lieutenant to the exit for the ship. As one of the shortest in the crowd, she had problems stretching her neck to see over those a head taller than her. She wanted to see the Citadel, to be in awe of its space-age wonder. Something she had dreamed of - since, well, birth - was finally in her grasp, ready for the taking. Her heart began to beat faster as they inched, as a group, off the ship. One by one, they went through a short security checkpoint, an asari scanning their wrist implants to register that they were arriving. And finally, her foot touched the metallic ground, and the group around her began to spread out a little.

It was breathtaking to say the least. Tears formed in Kelly's eyes as she stared at what could be considered the sky. They had landed on one of the five arms, and she could see the others all around her, above her head. She could see the stars, the ships coming in and out, as was to be expected for the central hub of the galaxy. The redhead's chest swelled as she saw asari, turian, salarian, volus, hanar – all these alien species she had only ever seen in a textbook, all around her, talking with humans, interacting with each other, as they came off their ships and boarded others, or lounged around waiting for a friend. The woman nearly wanted to grab the arm of the person next to her to steady herself as she saw the intergalactic ads, describing vids and products that people of the citadel could watch and buy. The buildings all over stretched far above her head, and they glittered in her eyes as the most beautiful pieces of architecture she had ever seen. Never had she felt so fulfilled, not in her entire life.

But then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that boy who had pestered her earlier, and remembered that she had a personal duty to fulfill. He seemed to be pestering someone else towards the front of the group, and she thanked God for the distraction. Speedwalking around the other recruits, who shuffled along slowly behind the old man who led them, she reached the Lieutenant.

He noticed her approaching him, and greeted her with a kind smile that wrinkled his eyes. "And what have we here, Miss…?"

"Kelly Chambers, sir, Psychologist," she replied, hoping she sounded much more dignified than that shrew had earlier in the day. "I'd like to inform you of something."

The man seemed to sense the tiny urgency in her voice, and the smile fell away to reveal something more serious and curious. "Go ahead."

"On the ship, one of the other recruits, Liam, was telling me about how he planned to reach a specific Cerberus base and leave it for some sort of absurd rescue mission. He believes that the late Commander Shepard is being kept near a base somewhere, and his goal is to find her."

Before the Lieutenant could even let the information sink in to process what to do with it, the recruit boy was pushing through the protesting group at the front of their small crowd, and running past in a panic. Kelly realized that he must have been eavesdropping in on their conversation, and upon hearing her snitching, to make a run for it. The man straightened up. "Miss Chambers, was that by any chance the boy you were just—"

"Yes, sir," Kelly said urgently, her body tense. She now felt personally responsible for him running away, when she could have tackled this with more poise.

"I want you to go find a C-Sec officer, and take them with you to stop that recruit. He must _not_ be lost at any cost."

"Y-yes, alright," she stammered, a little bit confused, before running off in the direction where Liam had taken off.

C-Sec. Citadel security. What kind of uniforms did they wear? She didn't know that much about the Citadel.

She approached a Salarian in an official-looking black and blue uniform, who was staring at a datapad. "Excuse me, sir, are you a C-Sec officer?" she ventured, and he turned his greenish face towards her, staring at her with large black eyes. Her heart caught in her throat.

"Yes, do you need something?" he said in a slightly high-pitched voice, sounding only a bit annoyed. She was suddenly grateful for the translation tool Cerberus had added to her omnitool the second she had arrived on the ship.

"I was told to get your help to track down this man, he's crazy, I'm with Cerberus, this could cost me my job—" she began to say, her voice hovering on the thin line between sane and panicked. The salarian held up a hand.

"Calm down. What does this man look like? What's his name?"

"I—he just got off the ship with me less than five minutes ago, his name is Liam, he had light skin and dark hair, around age nineteen—" but the Salarian was already typing things into his datapad, registering what she was saying at lightning speed.

"Got him on here. Follow me." He began to run in the direction she had seen Liam go, and she figured he must have a tracker on that datapad, something to do with how they were scanned when they first got off the ship. After only a few blocks of running, they caught up to Liam, who was coincidentally in a dead end alley.

Looking around himself, the boy was in a state of panic. "I'll fuck you up!" he threatened, pressing himself to a wall, but pointing a finger at Kelly. He turned to the C-Sec officer. "This bitch told on me! I'll kill her! They're gonna kill me!" The boy was nearly ballistic, screaming and crying like a baby. The salarian drew a gun from his holster.

Liam stopped making noise once he saw the barrel of the gun pointed at him. "You'll come here and let me put handcuffs on you, or you're going to let me put a bullet in your leg, kid," the officer threatened. The human seemed to be somewhat responsive. He took a shaky breath and put his head in his hands, not responding.

"You wouldn't shoot a kid; I'm just starting my life! I could be a hero!" he muttered as he approached the salarian tentatively. Ending up only a few feet from the officer, he obeyed the salarian's motion to stop. Keeping the gun up, but taking a pair of handcuffs from his pockets, the C-Sec officer approached Liam cautiously.

"Turn around and put your hands behind your back." Liam obeyed, relaxing. But just as the salarian approached him, he turned and ran towards Kelly. She flinched, but not fast enough, as he planted a fist on her face. A loud _crack_ filled her ears as she felt his fist make contact with her cheekbone, and then he was sprawled on the ground in front of her, blood beginning to seep from his leg. The girl cried out in pain, putting a hand to where she had been hit and backing up a few steps, real tears now streaming out of her eyes. The salarian approached the boy and handcuffed him, then grabbed his collar and began to drag him along the ground.

"Come with me," he ordered in a cold tone of voice. Kelly followed close behind, feeling throbbing beneath her hands. Luckily, the crack she heard must have been from the gun, not any bones breaking. She followed the C-Sec officer back to where the Lieutenant stood. The old man looked at the bleeding recruit with disdain, but ordered a few of the other newbies to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way to the office. Liam hadn't even made it into the arms of the young men before the salarian was angrily barking at the Lieutenant, the words coming out of his mouth faster than she could imagine.

"…for the past month, bringing group after group of miscreants onto my Citadel! As head of immigration, I'm disgusted by the behavior of your organization. I'm sick of chasing down your newest guns for hire who are just as willing to fight as they are willing to eat dirt. This needs to stop or I will personally set up a team to investigate the ethics of Cerberus and if they can even legally be allowed to hold an office on the Citadel. And don't you even think of sending me another _poster girl_ to convince me to chase down some goon for the sake of her _job._" The officer ended quite forcefully, making a gesture towards Kelly, who shrunk back a little in shame. She felt the bruise forming on her pretty face, and she looked away from the large-eyed stares of her peers, hands leaving her cheek to stroke her hair nervously.

The Lieutenant nodded, squinting at the officer, who then left in a frustrated huff. "Can never please Officer Harsin," the old man said, shaking his head. He smiled at Kelly, who looked back at him with hurt, watery eyes. The psychologist was sure she looked awful, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. She used the butt of her hand to wipe away her tears as she merged into the crowd again.

It didn't take long to reach the substantially sized Cerberus office, in which a few desks and secretaries sat. The Lieutenant was pleased. "Looks like we're the only one to come in this time," he said happily, which led Kelly to believe that normally there would have been a much longer wait. One woman at a desk began to call names alphabetically, where the recruits would sit down at her desk for a short interview before being sized for their uniforms. All but one.

Liam was taken into a side room by a few uniformed Cerberus men, and Kelly assumed it was the office of some administrator. The Lieutenant entered shortly after him, and Kelly closed her eyes, hoping that the sounds of muffled screaming and a faint gunshot were all in her head.


	4. Chapter 4

_Dear Mom,_

_I've finally made it! I'm at the Citadel. It's so much more amazing than I ever dreamed. The different species of aliens are everywhere, and the architecture is fascinating. There are more people here than they could ever dream of fitting on Earth, and almost all of them live or work here. It's better than going to New York City. I'm so glad I've been given this opportunity._

_They've put me to work here on the Citadel. My job is to interview newcomers, just like what they did to me when I came in. I've got to figure out their strengths and weaknesses and their preferences, and assign them a job somewhere they'll like, as well as construct a psychological profile for those who will be in charge of them. And, of course, if they seem a little off, I'm supposed to report them to the administrator on site, where they'll take care of them and send them back home (they had to do that with one person in the group I arrived with). They've put me in an apartment nearby, and the view I have is incredible. In fact, the only downfall I can think of is that one other person was assigned the same job as me. She's this freakishly annoying girl named Naomi. Maybe she'll get better and more bearable as we work together, like you always say, I should give her a chance._

_Anyway, I'll definitely keep you updated. We're allowed minimal contact with people back home, partially because most of what we do is supposed to be top-secret. A message to you every now and then couldn't hurt me, though, so I'll do what I can. I hope you and dad are doing well._

_Love,_

_Kelly._

"Alright, here's a file for your omnitool, describing your job assignment. You'll be assigned to the planet Aite, as a part of the guards there. Your ship leaves in about two hours, you can find the boarding information in the file I gave you. If you'll follow the door to your left, there's someone in there who can give you your uniform and set you on your way." With a shining smile, she transferred the data to his omnitool. The young man was excited, although he probably didn't know that most people who joined this organization to fight were doomed from the start. After having done this for a week, Kelly had learned from the more senior employees that kids fresh out of high school often came here to carry a gun, thinking they would come out a hero, when they really came out a corpse.

She learned several things from the older coworkers, in fact. The relations with Cerberus and most of C-Sec were tense right now, and it was likely that this entire office would be removed from the Citadel within the next year. It turned out that in the past few years, some Alliance officer had uncovered horrible things about the organization that had only been true more than a decade prior and somehow got that information to an official on the Citadel. Combined with that and the occasional out-of-control recruit, similar to what had happened the other day, the Citadel Security was beginning to doubt whether Cerberus had benign intentions here. If it kept up, they would be forced to move to another base.

Kelly was doing fine, however, thoroughly enjoying her new job. Thanks to the wonders of medigel, a bruise which would have lasted about a month was faded to nearly nothing in about a week. Kelly was able to cover it up with a thick layer of makeup, making her seem even more friendly and personable to her clients than she had been before. Of course, that didn't keep Naomi from giving her a smirk every time she turned her cheek in that direction.

"Oh, look, Kelly, that blemish on your cheek is finally gone!" the woman had squeaked the first time Kelly had walked in, for once feeling a little less insecure about the large blotch. The psychologist had smiled at her coworker, a thank you on the tip of her tongue, when the mousy girl continued. "Oh, never mind, I can still see a faint outline of it. Maybe tomorrow."

At least she didn't have must else to pick on.

After a solid week in the workplace, Kelly was confronted with a day off. While back at home, this had been a blessing, right now she didn't know what to do. The Citadel was so overwhelming, and it had so much to do, she didn't have a clue where to start.

After some debating, the thought of that disgruntled salarian officer stuck in her head. He had been so upset by the disturbance made by the new arrivals, and it had basically been her fault. Reverting to what she knew about making people happy, she decided to do what she would have done any other day at home, which was to bring him some sort of food.

Unsure of exactly what salarians ate, she ventured out in one of those simple, skintight outfits that she had never even considered wearing back on Earth. Here, though, it seemed appropriate, as it helped her blend in with everyone else. She was just another civilian, who had made the Citadel her home. The redhead liked that thought.

Fortunately, most of the shops she encountered in this area of the Citadel were open booths, with the shopkeepers anxiously awaiting their next customer. It was much more crowded here than anywhere she had seen in photos of the Citadel – those pictures must have shown the richer parts of the station. She was fascinated at how efficiently the translator in her omnitool could make her able to understand what the signs around her were saying, although she wouldn't even begin to question the system wired into her flesh. Finally she came upon a yellow hued salarian, smiling behind a booth labeled "Sweets of Sur'Kesh." She approached him a bit nervously.

"Can I help you, human?" the man asked, seeming a bit surprised that someone not of his own race would approach, but perhaps it was just his already oversized eyes.

"Uh…" she trailed off, staring at the names of foods she most certainly didn't recognize. There was a long pause, before Kelly blushed, giving the vendor a small smile. "I'm looking to buy pastries for a salarian… friend. As a thank you." The salarian returned a small smile.

"You've come to the right place," he responded rapidly, pulling out some odd-shaped cookies (at least she thought they were cookies). They smelled slightly different, but they seemed to have the same concept as any batch of cookies at home. "These will do. Salarians have a high metabolism, so any food is almost always appreciated. Twenty credits for a dozen. Is it your first time on the Citadel?"

Fumbling with pulling out her credit chit and handing it to him, Kelly nodded. "I've been here for about a week," she professed. The salarian nodded as he ran the chit through, then handed it back to her as well as a bag of the cookies.

"I could tell. You seem nervous. Loosen up a little, enjoy your stay." He turned, obviously intending that last statement as a dismissal. She left, a little disgruntled. A salarian, telling _her_ to loosen up? They were known for being the most energetic, uptight species in Citadel space. Nonetheless, she tried to relax her shoulders a bit. What she could really use was a massage.

The next part was easy – finding the Salarian officer. After talking to a turian officer, it seemed that it was actually rare for the man to be out and about, and actually did a lot of office work, being more akin to a Captain than anything else. The salarian often told others what to do, putting together schedules for the officers below him. The turian directed her to where the office would be, and Kelly was on her way.

After walking through some winding corridors in the C-Sec , she finally came upon the office. Pressing the holographic button on the door, it slid open with ease, and she put on a beaming smile when she laid eyes on the C-Sec officer. He had pale green features, with darker brown speckles and the occasional black stripe on his skin. The redhead noted how bizarre the salarian skintones were, how they created patterns, unlike the asari or turians.

Captain Harsin looked up from his datapad, his eyes narrowing when he saw her. It didn't take several steps for Kelly to cross the room and stand in front of his desk, the paper bag of cookies clutched in front of her as if she weren't quite sure what to do with them. With a deep, exhausted sigh, the salarian put the datpad down and leaned back in his chair. The smile fell from the psychologist's face as he began to speak. "You're that Cerberus girl from the other day. What do you need? It had better be important, I'm busy."

Biting her lip, Kelly was blushing again. "I- I brought you something, as a thank you for the other day," she told him, placing the bag on the desk, suddenly glad it was out of her hands.

The officer snorted, exasperated, and shook his head. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I have no time for expressions of gratitude. It's my job. Please leave my office."

Disappointed, Kelly turned unceremoniously and left.


End file.
